Wedding Cake Styles and Trends

Your wedding cake will be a major focal point at your wedding reception, so if you find yourself obsessing over ideas for your cake, its little wonder.But if you want your cake to tie in well with the rest of your wedding (as it should), you need to make sure you’re selecting a cake that fits the style and theme (if there is one) of your wedding. Occasionally I see brides who select their wedding cake based on a picture they saw in a magazine or book, but the problem is, it doesn’t “fit” with the rest of their wedding. So instead of enhancing their wedding reception as a wedding cake should, a wedding cake that is chosen without taking all of the other wedding elements into consideration just ends up looking like the “odd man out”.

Take a look at the major wedding cake styles and trends to help you decide on a cake that will actually compliment the rest of your wedding…

The Classic Cake:

The classic wedding cake is a round or square cake with multiple tiers. It features white cream or fondant icing. Nothing avant gare or over the edgy, just beautiful and timeless. Tiers can be stacked one directly on top of the next, or separated by cake pillars. Once highly traditional for wedding cakes, we now see less of fruitcake than we did a few decades ago, but its still sometimes used for a very traditional, classic wedding cake. Its a good choice if you want to uphold the tradition of saving the top layer of your wedding cake for your first anniversary because fruitcake keeps very well and freezes nicely. If you don’t want your entire wedding cake to be fuit cake, its also quite traditional to have only the top layer made of fruitcake, with the other layers being another classic choice such as  marble, caramel, white cake, white chocolate or carrot cake.

• 2011 Wedding Cake Trends:

Wedding Cake Decorations:

A simple iced cake with decorative flowers at the top (instead of an ornamental cake topper). Flowers may be fresh or silk as long as the choice of silk flowers is realistic in appearance. Satin ribbons border the base of each layer.

Black and White cakes are very much a trend for 2011.

The Themed Wedding Cake:

Themed wedding cakes are colorful, imaginative, highly creative. The often are characterized by a sense of whimsy or drama.

A Themed wedding cake is a reflection of your individuality and daring personality. If you like to stand out this is probably the type of cake for you. And if you want your cake to be remembered by guests, a theme wedding cake will generally do the trick!

Look for inspiration for your wedding cake in your theme you’ve picked for your wedding. If your wedding really doesnt have a theme, consider the wedding location in developing a theme for your wedding cake. A beach wedding, for instance, might have a sandcastle cake,  or a cake covered with a seashell motif. Or bring out the theme for your wedding cake by choosing a unique cake topper. Back to the beach wedding example, you might have a couple of miniature lawn chairs for your topper.

Multiple shapes such as squares combined with round and pyramid tiers are very trendy at the moment

Use your Honeymoon location as inspiration – If you are going skiing, try a snow-white cake in the shape of a snowy mountain. For a Parisian honeymoon, a sophisticated black and white cake with an Eiffel tower topper will be well suited.

The Cupcake Wedding Cake:

Individual, beautifully decorated cupcakes stacked high remain very popular again this year. A great choice for a buffet reception or a garden wedding. Because cupcakes have wrappers they can be enjoyed while standing and so the cupcake wedding cake is also an ideal choice for a stand-up reception or a relaxed, informal wedding reception. Your cupcake sizes can range anywhere from muffin-size (if this is the only desert to be served at your wedding reception) to those tiny, miniature cupcakes.

• 2011 Trends:

Heart shaped cupcakes with red and pink icing for a romantic theme.

Gluten or dairy-free cakes for guests with dietary requirements are also very important, as more and more people are being diagnosed with food allergies

The Chocolate cake

Imagine a delicious chocolate ganache exterior, decorated with chocolate swirls, shards and shavings, with a decadent fudge or caramel interior. Chocolate cakes are very fashionable, versatile and popular right now, but are recommended in very cool months or for air-conditioned venues.

• 2011 Trends:

Dark Chocolate mouse cake with fresh fruit, dipped in chocolate or dusted with coco or icing.

Color contrasted – butter cake or milk chocolate cake interior with dark chocolate outside and visa versa.

The Contemporary cake

This is a cake with a modern twist on the classic / traditional cake. It is ideal for a wedding in a distinctly modern setting, or for an artistic couple. With a ‘less is more’ mantra, these classic square cakes should be an innovative and contemporary work of edible art. For an elegant yet modern look, square shaped cake layers can be stacked slightly off centre in shades of ivory or white.

• 2011 Trends:

Add a fake ‘display’ layer to give the cake some height.

A Single layer cake, simple decorated with a highlight on top.

Match the exact color of your theme or highlight to the cake color

Adding a little ‘bling’ to your cake – such as Pearls or Swarovski crystals, will give it that wow factor.

Create unusual shaped stands using Perspex, metal or glass to give it a contemporary feel

The Croquembouche

The croquembouch is a hot trend. It isn’t just very tasty, but can be beautifully decorated with flowers and caramel sugar strings.

The Wedding cake gives you the perfect opportunity to add to your color scheme or theme, and that is why you should really put some thought into it and discuss your theme with your Cake maker.

Make the process of choosing your wedding cake fun and personal. Whether you are having a fun and funky theme or a romantic traditional celebration, it is very important to fit the style of the cake into your wedding.

This is one of the details in your wedding that allows you to step out of the box and have a cake that your guests will remember for a long time